The Precursors
"They tell the people that the Gods are among us, but they lie. Those who came before had their own Gods - objects of worship and reverence, who were much less holy. When we are gone and turned to dust, shall we become revered by those we leave behind? Does that make us more godly? I think not. Yet the Precursors came so very close..."thumb|346px|link=File:409px-Luminoth.jpg '' When Humanity first left its home planet, it dreamed of meeting alien civilizations, though those who believed in the possibility were far fewer than those that did not. However, none would have expected what was discovered: the Covenant were powerful beyond belief, deriving their technology through the recycling and imitation of their predecessors' technology, that of the Forerunners. Without a doubt, the Forerunners were powerful in their prime, capable of defeating lesser or equal races with little effort: the ancient alliance of Humans and San'Shyuum fell to them with little issue, and the Flood only overpowered the Forerunners through their early carelessness and the Flood's overwhelming numbers. But before even these giants of the universe, there was another race, one powerful and ancient enough that they were worshiped as gods by the Forerunners themselves. These were the Precursors. Forming a civilization three-quarters of a million years ago, the Precursors would continue to advance themselves throughout the millenia that followed, growing ever more powerful as they did. Expanding across the stars, the Precursors would leave marks unlike any others across the galaxy, both with their military power and their scientific achievements. The Precursors fall was a complicated series of failures: The Civil War, the creation of the Flood, The myth of the Hydra and the final push of the Forerunners all helped in the eventual downfall of this powerful and intelligent race. They vanished, became extinct, their legacy only surviving in the structures they left behind. The Timeless One is the only known Precursor to exist into the "Forerunner Era." The Precursors are thought to be extinct, or are they? Could they have evolved into gods? Could they have transcended to different dimensions? Or did they leave the galaxy, waiting for a reason to return? Whatever the reason behind their sudden disappearence, they leave the galaxy and Mantle to the Forerunners, and whoever succeeds them... History Origins The Precursors first came to existence by their accidental creation by the Primals. They settled on Zeban, soon reaching Tier 0, the highest technological level on the Forerunner technological advancement scale. They were only found by the Primals some 8 to 7 Trillion years ago. The Precursors, before their discovery by the Primals used a caste system of "Dynasties" where there were seperate tribes all lead by one powerful family, a Dynasty. The weaker tribe would be subjugated by more powerful tribes, but sometimes this would cause rebellions. All of this came to an end when the Dynasty warlord Lepidop used his tribe to declare war against the other tribes. Eventually, the rebellions ended in the formation of the Precursors as a single, united race under a central leadership. The Precursors were not the only race to thrive on Zeban, and the Heralds and Predecessors, feared their rise to power and immediately declared war. However, the Precursors quickly overran the planet and became the dominant species. At this time, they were only Tier 2, and would not encounter the Primals for millions of years to come. With Zeban fully Precursor inhabited, they began making large scale cities and town communities. By the time they were finished populating the planet, they had reached Tier 1. After discovering unknown technological artefacts however (known as Primal Constellation Crystals) they immediately beefed up to Tier 0, a technological level only reachable via the Crystal. Sensing it's activation, the Primals discovered Zeban and the crystal was taken away. The Precursors immediately worshipped them as gods and thought they were there to send them to spiritual trascendence but instead, their entire race was enslaved. Slavery The Precursors are immediately forced into labor. They are seperated all over the Universe, put on every Primal colony to work on their structures, economy and serve in their military. Eventually one Precursor, known as the Timeless One decided he had had enough and began secretly creating the Supremial, the official Precursor state of government. He also established the religon known as the "Mantle" which demanded the worship of Peace, and not war. Precursor-Primal War The Supreme Primal demands that the Timeless One disregard this action, and return to slavery. Angered by the Supreme Primal's arrogance to accept to the Mantle, the Timeless One instead gathers a army which eventually recruits all the Precursors and he assaults UniPrime. Knowing that war is official, Griffin responds with anti-warfare declaring that the Precursors are no longer slaves but hostile and to be shot on sight. The war spands 26 centuries and is one of the most lethal wars to known in history. In the eventual climax of the war, the Precursor's emerge victorious with the Timeless One's tactical mastery proving to be much more than the Primal's, he is able to trap them in slipspace for all eternity. He begins rebuilding his race and using scavenged Primal Tech, he begins "towing" Zeban out of Universe One. Universe Two and the Civil War After leaving Universe One, the Precursors used Primal technology to create Universe Two, where they settled in the Milkly Way Galaxy. They placed Zeban just near the center, and created the Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili, Mgalekgolo, Jiralhanae, Yanme'e, San'Shyuum, Humanity and the Forerunners. However, they take special interest in Humanity and the Forerunners and beef them up to Tier 1. Almost immediately, Humanity and the Forerunners have created vast, interstellar empires. During this course, a faction known as the Elders who worship the "Hydra" decide that the Mantle is a blasphemy to all they believe in and try to convert all the other Precursors to Hydraism. This fails, and learning that Hydraism is based off worshipping a race known as the Hydra, which turns out to be a group of surviving Primals, declares the Elders a bunch of heretics to the Mantle, and demand them eradicated. A Civil War, or most preferrablely, a Holy War, sparks with the Eternals (the pro-Mantle faction) beginning a eradication campaign against the Elders. This war was lethal and deadly. However, due to a less dedicated army, the Elders were losing badly. Eventually they resorted to the creation of the Flood which would be unleashed on Zeban. However, the parasite became out of control was instead placed on Planet Designate 221, more commonly known as Trisca, where a Anti-weapon known as the Malidasium, basically the Flood 2.0, except 200 times more powerful and more loyal to the Elders. This sparked a war between these two races. The Elders were then granted assistance by the Hydra, however, due to post-God War knowledge on the Primal's power, the Hydra were unable to cause a lasting in the war. Eventually the Hydra went back into hiding, while the Elders suffered eventual defeat at the hands of the Eternals. The surviving Elders were gathered and forced to subject themselves to the Mantle. Those still loyal to the Hydra, were executed on behalf of the Timeless One who gained the title "Holy Representitive of the Mantle." Precursor War of survival against the Flood After defeating the Malidasium, the Flood infect a Precursor recon vessel, and head for Zeban. It infects a multitude of vessels on the way there. Identifying the vessels as hostile, the Precursor defense platforms in orbit over Zeban vaporized most of the Flood vessels, forcing them into retreat. The Timeless One declares that the only way the Mantle can be secured, is if the Flood is exterminated. They then declare war against the parasite. The War is won with a century. The Flood's numbers are the only reason it managed to last so long. The Precursors, knowing their own technology than the Flood, lay waste to the Flood forces and ultimately take the battle outside the Universe and back to the Supreme Sphere. The Flood vainly attempt to push through the advancing Precursor line, but fail with almost no damage done. The Flood then put up a final stand where they go on a mass infection spree, trying to infect and secure as many ships for their own as possible. Initially successful in pushing the Precursors back, the Flood eventually succumb to defeat and are trapped in the Supreme Sphere. The Timeless One declares them "exiled" and calls his forces back so they can rebuild from both the Civil War and the Flood war. However, the Precursors end is near. Return of Hydra After the Precursor-Flood reached it's total climax, the Hydra took their chance to attack the Precursors. This was unexpected, and significant damage was done to capital cities on Zeban. However, the Hydra were forced to rethink their strategy and decided to invoke hatred among the Forerunners. They told the Forerunners that the Precursors were planning their extinction, and this forced the Forerunners to mobilize their forces and prepare for a incoming attack. However, by this time, Hydra's leader had been captured and killed, becoming the first Primal's to be killed. This eventually forced Hydra into surrender, and now the Primal race was never going to threaten the Precursors ever again. Precursor-Forerunner War and the Decline of the Precursor race The Forerunners were now ready, but instead of waiting for a immediate attack, they attacked Zeban. The Timeless One then saw this as a declaration of war and so the final fight of the Precursors began. The Precursors however, were too exhausted in Military strength to be sufficiently resist the Forerunners. After 2 centuries worth of fighting, the Forerunners finally captured Zeban. The Timeless One escaped on a Paradise-class fighter, but it was infected by the Flood and he was turned into a Gravemind. His remaining forces were put under the backup command of The Warrior. He continued to resist the Forerunners but it was in vain. Colony after Colony after Colony fell to the Forerunners. Eventually the Warrior's forces had no choice but to make a final stand on Planet Designate 221. However, a remainder of Flood here infected both a majority of Forerunner and Precursor forces alike, forcing the Forerunners to bombard the planet from orbit. This wiped out the Flood forces and the Warrior's forces. He was captured, interrogated and executed. During his interrogation, he told them about the Mantle. He stated: "My death means nothing. My race is finished. We have no longer the god like will to keep leading you peace, clarity and tranquility. You however, can. The Timeless One would most certainly approve. You may have destroyed us, but we believe you are the true inheritors of the Mantle, and Humanity. Both your races can lead all the other races of the Universe on a Journey into spiritual transcendence. Do with me as you wish, my time is well spent. Go, guiders of all life, for your time to shine, has dawned." The Forerunners then adopted the Mantle as their religon but began exterminating all Precursor life. The eventual Precursor fate is unknown. Like the intro states, alot of things could have happened. However only one speculation can be used. The Precursors as of 190,000 BCE are presumed Extinct. Description Anatomy and Physiology It is often not to compare alien tissue with human tissue. The convergent evolution bipedalism in sentient organisms throughout history is certainly astonishing, but in most regards the Precursors break this streak. For one thing, they have a thick chitinous exoskeleton and sensory antenae that flow down their backs. They are also extremely thin, to the point of being skeletal, except at the abdomen which is extremely muscular. Their hands possess three digits and their feet two, with the tips possessing minisucule microscopic sensory/manipulative fillaments, increasing their ability to grip, manipulate objects, and generally improve their use to their ability. Their legs are digitigrade, allowing them superior running and jumping ability - with modern digitigrade species have difficulty with ladders and stairs, the Precursors seem to have no such difficulty, shunning physical elevation in favour of anti-gravity lifts, which they pioneered. Religon Their religon was solely based around the Mantle. They believe that peace is what allows you to transcedend all living time and space, allowing you to see what lies beyond hatred and war. It is quite possibly the first religon not to involve the worshipping of a god, but more of a state. It is thought that Precursor Neural Physics also helped them in progressing in the Mantle. The Mantle also appears to be a religon that can only be worshipped by those seen fit to succeed it's previous worshipper, meaning it must be earned, not simply worshipped. Political System The Precursor Sovereign Dominion aka "The Supremial" was the name of the government and political power that the Timeless One devised as the central unification for the Precursor race. {C The Conclave The Conclave is the executive branch of the Precursor government. Led by two Lieges, The Timeless and Knowledgeable One and also includes five Adjudicators: the first Nroht oversaw all the Dominion's economic and agricultural assets, ensuring that there were no upsets in the money flow and all ran smoothly in the economy as well as ensuring that the Dominion would have enough food for all; the Second Nroht dealt with the overseeing of the Precursor's religous services (much like Humanity's catholic pope) and the recording of all Precursor history; the Third Nroht, ensured that all were properly educated and that no dissident or rebellious works of writing were released (the exact definitions of "rebellious" were left up to the Third Nroht); The Fourth Nroht, was something of grand overseer of science, ensuring that science and technology was always moving forward for the betterment of the Dominion as a whole; the final, Fifth Nroht looked after Dominion territory, ensuring that all was properly mapped and like, as well as make sure that information was always kept on the exact locations of all members of the Dominion. The Synod The Synod is both the legislative and judicial branches of the Sovereign Dominion’s political system, being highly similar to the Sangheili High Council. Each Dynasty forms its own group, called a Coterie, which consists of three to five seats depending on the size of the Dynasty, with a total of one hundred and eight seats available in all. The Synod’s purpose is a two-part job of dealing with civil matters: first, the individual Coterie’s in the Synod conceive and create the laws of the Sovereign Dominion, which they then vote upon and either pass or fail; secondly, they then interpret the law in order to carry out the prosecution of those that break the law. It should be noted that the laws of the Dominion were recorded as being very strict, called totalitarian by many: even “small” deeds such as a small theft or a public outbreak of dissension between two beings could result in prison sentences or, while more radical persons were in power, death even. Oddly enough, matters that happened in private were practically ignored by the Precursors’ government: the exact reasoning behind this ideology is unknown. Presiding over each Coterie is a Mogul, also referred to as a Guams, whose vote represents that of the entire Coterie. However, no official delegations or meetings are made to determine what the Coterie’s view on any given subject should be: instead, each individual member must tell the Mogul their personal view on the matter, and in the end he will choose how to vote based on these comments and his personal judgement; it has even been recorded where Moguls decided to vote in total disregard of the views of the Coterie’s members. However, nothing restricts how a Mogul may be persuaded, so everything short of threats are used, including bribes; in addition, members of the other Coterie’s are able to “convince” other Mogul’s, though this is much more difficult due to the fierce political/Dynastic rivalries involved. In the end, the votes of the Moguls are all turned in the Seignior, who then reports the turn-out. The Two Lieges The Sovereign Dominion is led by the Two Lieges, the Seignior (or Arihpas) and the Overlord (or Arijog). The first of these two, the Seignior, serves as the leader of all civil matters and is officially the leader of the Sovereign Dominion; the second, the Overlord, serves as the supreme leader of all military operations and forces, and because of the many wars of the Precursors and the immense power of the military, the Overlord is the de facto leader. The Seignior’s main duty is to preside over the Conclave and the Synod and ensure that order is observed and rules are followed. The majority of this duty is focused on overseeing the Synod and ensuring that the persistent argument do not erupt into raucous fighting. In addition, the Seignior acts as the reader of the law, the judge in trials of criminals, the announcer of the outcome of a vote, and in the event of a tie vote, the breaker of such a tie. The Overlord’s duties are completely over all military operations: however, as there are only a very few restrictions on what the Overlord can do – and these only over the most extreme of situations – and due to the consistency of war in the Precursor’s history, the Overlord effectively became the de facto leader of the Dominion in its’ early years. The Overlord oversees all military missions, operations and battles, he directs the movements of the armies, the allocation of troops, the defensive positions, the lessons taught in the military camps, the development of weapons and other technology, and even the evacuation of entire planets in the case of invasion. The Apostles Armed Forces The Precursor military evolved over their civilization's long and glorious lifetime, passing through three stages. The first stage was the commonplace stage held by almost all civilizations, and it was the use of their own troops for all of their military operations. Due to the Precursor's high rate of reproduction, their population, and consequently their army, was the largest ever seen in the galaxy, and as time moved on the Precursors' creativity and ingenuity allowed them to created more and more complex weaponry, vehicles, and eventually unmanned drones, which in the end led to the second stage of their armed forces. When at last the Precursors moved to the second stage, they already had half the galaxy under their control, and were at war with other races, the Heralds and the Predecessors. It was in this time that the Precursors perfected their drone technology, creating many forms of robots that were on par and above the capabilities of the Forerunner's Sentinels and Monitors. During this timeframe, the Precursors also began to use cyberneticly augmented troops, as well as cyborgs; the latter of these, however, was outlawed after being deemed inhumane, as dead bodies were used to create them, though cybernetic enhancements continued to be used until the Precursor's disappearance. The final phase of the Precursor military came late in the Precursor-Primal War: this third form of military was the use of genetic manipulation and cloning to create "grown" armies of beings that would prove useful to them. These first armies were created via the mass cloning of "Sub-Cursors," dumb organics with no free will who only did as they were told. These armies were not used very long, due to many Precursors finding it distasteful to create slave armies for themselves; the process, however, was condoned by the entire leadership of the Dominion, and once the process went through some revision, large world-stations filled with the necessary equipment to create organically grown armies were left behind after the Precursor-Forerunner War, to lay dormant till the Precursors (or any other race) awoke them to create armies from the nearby seeded races that carried the necessary genetic material to create the armies. Training Part of the fierceness of the Stage 1 Precursor Armed Forces – the time when it was still composed fully of all-organic Precursors – was the rigorous training exercises that all the soldiers went through prior to any combat action. The physical training was excruciating, with the combined use of constant training, a healthy diet and non-addictive/detrimental enhancement drugs making the Precursors 300% more fit by the end of the seventeen month training session. After the seventeen months of perfect conditions, the soldiers then underwent an additional seven months of training in the worst conceivable conditions; without any contact with the outside world, highly limited rations (usually forcing fasts on multiple troops in a squad), extreme temperatures and conditions; these months at the end of the training helped to further the soldier’s ability to survive both physically and mentally. However, despite all this, the true power of the Precursor training regime was the mental training: using long sessions of tactics that were essentially brainwashing, extensive use of logic and complex thinking training – as well as lessons on higher mathematics, medicine, and other such things for specialists – large amounts of drills in the use and resistance of psychological warfare, and lastly a form of soul-searching where one was forced to constantly search inside themself and face their fears so that the soldier, in conquering the fear, would grow stronger. In the end, the Precursors had a discipline and faith far beyond even the most extreme Sangheili or Vorenus warriors, while being able to temper it with the ability to think straight and see when a commanding officer’s orders needed to be disregarded. Technology The Precursors were, and still are, the most advanced species to have ever existed in this galaxy and likely all others, and their technological achievements matched this fact. Whether it be in the field of starships, weaponry, armor, robotics, genetic manipulation, cloning, artificial intelligence, or any other, their technology far exceeded most of Humanity's wildest imaginations. Weapons The Precursors had managed to master technology that was far beyond any other civilization, and used weapons that varied greatly in their field of origin, from kinetic weapons to energy weapons, bullets to explosives, and everything else imaginable. One of the Precursor's last inventions, and most inventive, was organic acid generators for their slave armies: placing small, cybernetically-augmented acid glands within the bodies of the slave races, the soldiers were capable of producing acid in large quantities so long as they consumed a small amount of sustenance, and this acid could then be sprayed from ports located at the wrist. Similarly, the Precursor's managed to produce a laser that operated on a biologically fueled power core that was small enough to be placed inside a body without difficulty. Powered through a combination of using natural acids from the body to cause chemical reactions, as well the motions of both blood and organs to create kinetic energy, the small power core is capable of creating a laser of equal or greater strength than the UNSC's SPARTAN Laser with only a tenth of the cool-down time (the laser itself being fired from a gun grafted onto the soldier's arm). While the Precursors possessed directed energy weapons in abundance, one of their most devastating weapons were kinetic in nature, similar in concept (if radically different in implementation) to the UNSC MAC - small solid projectiles accelerated to velocities higher than lightspeed, the Precursors made effective use of these Relativistic Kill Vehicles. A single shot was capable of devastating a planet using only a small round. As such, they were extremely rare - the destruction of planets was reserved only for the most entrenched of foes that posed a threat to the Precursors, and using them against anything smaller was deemed a waste. Miniaturised versions were attempted, but were still too wasteful to be used as a mainstream weapon. Another of the Precursor's most powerful and technical weapons was the Energizer Cannon: firing a beam of pure energy, the blast was sufficient to destabilize the opponent's molecular structure, overcharging the foe's atoms with the energy, the atoms would near instantaneously change from the solid phase of matter to the gas phase. However, while the energy charge was to vaporize infantry and light vehicles or robots, heavier foes were usually protected enough for the Energizer Cannon to have little effect on them. The most devastating piece of technology in the Precursor's arsenal, however, was the Devastator Cannon, nicknamed the "Starurst" or "Sun Crusher"; firing a concentrated energy blast, similar to a large scale Energizer Cannon, the Devastator would manage to destabilize the star or stars of a solar system, causing them to go supernova; even if the wave of fiery destruction that followed did not destroy all the system's inhabitants, the resulting black hole would destroy the remainder soon enough. Armor Like all their equipment, Precursor armor has evolved through a variety of forms throughout time. The earliest phases were merely hard plastic or metal plates that were capable of stopping or lessening a weapon's damage to the wearer, akin to the common grade material used by most AUR races. This was later supplemented by energy shields which became more powerful over time due to the advances in micro-technology allowing for ever more powerful and more compact shield generators. The ultimate advancement in armor created by the Precursors was known as Adamantium Armor, developed immediately prior to the end of the Precursor-Hydra War. Using a thin layer of the superdense, artificial metal called Adamantium, the armor was essentially indestructible as almost nothing could pass through the unbelievably dense material; the second component to this Adamantium Armor was a form-fitted suit, which generated an anti-grav field with a two-fold purpose, the first of which being to counter the massive weight problem of the Adamantium while the second purpose was to conform the Adamantium to the body of the wearer, a task reserved for the anti-grav generators due to the difficulty involved in molding Adamantium. Adamantium Armor became the staple of the Precursor armor in the final stages of the Precursor-Hydra War and onwards, and was eventually outfitted to all infantry, vehicles and ships. Vehicles Precursor vehicles were much like Covenant or early Forerunner vehicles, operating on anti-gravity mechanics with energy-based weaponry: however, the Precursors rarely chose to user their vehicles, and when they did it was predominantly large walker-style vehicles, similar to the Sangheili Scarab or Tarantula. Because of this choice, the few vehicles used by the Precursors eventually became only large walkers, while the smaller vehicle roles were first filled by robotic drones, and later by genetically enlarged and enhanced slave soldiers. By the time the Precursors had begun use of their bioengineered armies, only two vehicles were found useful for the new army, both of which had also evolved into bioengineered creations: the Revelation Mobile Command Platform and the Genesis Assault Platform. The first, the Revelation, was essentially a massive walking city: a massive, thick-skinned beast with six legs, no tail, and a short, squat head, it was used to command attacks, serve as a rallying point for repairing, rearmament and regrouping, and to also provide devastating support fire. The second vehicle, the Genesis, was a smaller walker-like animal (only twice the size of the USR Death Watch); it had been in Precursor service since the beginning of their use of walker technology and had evolved into a bioengineered creature with troop-carrying and swift-assault duties. Robotics The Precursors skills with robotics was highly advanced, and combined with dumb A.I.'s, they became highly effective in combat, with small ones functioning as infantry while larger ones came to replace typical vehicles for the Precursors. The Quad Mech was the most basic of all Precursors mechs. It consists of a large head with a single, red optical lens on four legs, each ending in a spike. It was produced en masse to combat foes, beginning with the Precursor Civil War. Its design was simple and effective enough that it survived with minimal changes down until the fall of the Precursors. The Smasher has two giant arms ending in two large shock-wave emitting orbs, as well as a large cannon on its back. The Heavy Crusher is a giant version of the Quad Mech, created to lay siege to Intga cities, fortresses, and bases. Starcraft By the end of their reign in this galaxy, the Precursors' massive fleet had consolidated its many different ship classes into merely three different types of ships. Each one was specialized in a different area, but none was left extremely vulnerable to attack; clad in the Precursors' Adamantium Armor, their ships were resistant to large amounts of damage, and on top of this were energy shields two dozen of times stronger than even Forerunner shields; in addition, the ships were armed with all manner of laser weaponry, ranging from the devastating Destiny Super Laser, capable of blasting straight through a Necros or Forerunner warship, to the Fate Rotary Laser, able to fire off 30 blasts from a laser per second. Aside from their three warships, the only other starcraft used by the Precursors was the Paradise-class Fighter Craft, used by Precursor pilots in dogfights against incoming enemy fighters or in bombing runs on the larger enemy warships. Armed with several Karma Lasers - lasers capable of firing from three muzzles in quick succession to allow for near constant fire or in one concentrate, charged blast - the Paradise Fighters were deadly in a firefight, and in addition they were capable of being changed into a defensive "attack" formation when assaulting powerful enemy ships. The smallest of the Precursor's ships, the Nirvana-class Frigate-Destroyer, was designed more as an escort guard for the larger ships than anything: quick and decently armed, a common Nirvana tactic was for several dozen to harass an enemy ship with constant hit-and-run attacks while the larger ships closed in to destroy them. Nirvana's were generally considered by many of the Precursors to be out-of-date, but the Precursor's military command considered them to serve their purpose well enough and they were not altered for an unprecedented five hundred years; some Precursor scholars deemed this one of the reasons that the Dominion fared so badly during the Precursor-Elder and Precursor-Hydra Wars. The main force of the Precursor Navy, the Elysium-class Cruiser-Carrier served as the major form of attack and troop transport for the Precursors. Armed with a half a dozen Fate Rotary Lasers, the Elysium was very useful in defeating enemy ships through a tactic where several Elysium's 'would form a semi-circle around a ''Nirvana-harried ship and destroy it. The Elysiums second purpose, that of transporting troops, could be accomplished simply by entering the system; upon entering the system, the on-ship teleporter could be used to teleport troops and supplies to the wished location, a design feature that would later be used against the Precursors in the Precursor-Hydra War, as Hydra would teleport their Cell forms all across the system before their ships had even gotten into range of the Precursor planets. The last ship class, the ''Valhalla-class Command Ship, was an enormous ship – little less than half the size of High Charity – used to command operations and, when needed, serve to single-handedly destroy opposition through the use of the ship's massive armament. The main use of the Valhalla, however, was not in combat: conceived and created specifically for Mission: RESSURECTION, the Valhalla was equipped with terraforming generators, pre-fabricated colonies and the like, as well as the necessary “native civilization” countermeasures, such as the Devastator Cannon (a star-destroying weapon) and the Overlord's Wrath (a technique where an artificial gravity well was used to force a planet's moon(s) to crash into it); these were used in the rare case that native sentients were present. In the end though, of the original 50 Valhalla's created, only 5 are recorded as being left in the Milky Way Galaxy, with the others being destroyed, lost, or taken by the Precursors when they left. The weaponry that was placed on these ships were far less diverse than the weapons used by the members of the Precursors infantry divisions; though there were half a dozen variations of weaponry for starships, all were laser-based. The Karma Laser was armed on the Paradise Fighters, allowing them to effectively assault both enemy fighters and the larger warships with ease; in addition to this, they were armed with large Virtue Anti-Matter Bombs - anti-matter bombs capable of homing on targets and using thrusters to follow the target - to be used against warships, orbital platforms and planetary targets. More powerful lasers were used on the warships, however, such as the Justice War Laser and the Fortune Sustained Laser on the small Nirvana Frigate-Destroyer - the former a regular, semi-automatic laser, the latter a powerful sustained-blast laser that could fire for extended periods in one powerful beam; the Elysium Cruiser-Carrier was armed with numerous of the more powerful Providence Heavy Laser and half a dozen Fate Rotary Lasers, the latter of which being a seven-barreled laser weapon that fired in succession to provide near-constant crossfire; the Valhalla, the most powerful of all Precursor ships ever created, was usually protected by fleets of Nirvana''s and ''Elysium''s and simply commanded the other warships, but when it was needed for battle the ''Valhalla was armed with dozens of Fate Rotary Lasers, Providence Heavy Lasers, and several Destiny Super Lasers, as well as being equipped with a single Judgement Laser that was capable of over-penetrating seven Elysium Cruiser-Carriers. Genetics The Precursor's greatest field of achievements was in the field of genetics: this field was divided into two sections: cloning and genetic manipulation, each of which was equally used and mastered. Nothing is known about the Precursor's use of genetics, except for it's military purposes. Artificial Intelligences Precursor Artificial Intelligence were the most advanced ever known to the universe; it was once remarked by a Precursor that they had "almost created sentient beings." The AI were capable of storing near-infinite amounts of data, and, at the end of the Precursor's time in our galaxy, their lifespans had been expanded to the point of near-immortality; this is evident in the fact that several such AI that had served in the Precursor-Hydra War survived all the way until the Necros War. Rampancy was a problem that plagued the Precursors for some time, as it does all races with AI, but in the end they managed to solve this problem; precautions were taken at all times to prevent rampancy in the first place, ranging from constantly giving AI's tasks to perform, as well as programming in a wish to create tasks to perform when none immediately present themselves, to allowing the AI to shut down for short stints to allow their "minds" (hard-drives) to stop and in effect move the rampancy process backwards. In the event that an AI did achieve rampancy, however, they would at first be placed into a form of "cyber-prison", and if they could be made to "reform", they would released and kept under constant watch; if they did not reform with a short timeframe, they were shut down. Other Inventions The Matrix was the Precursor's control unit for their various pieces of wireless communication systems technology and, later, the means by which they would control their organic armies. A partial copy of the Matrix was part of the technological scraps that the Precursors left behind for the Forerunners, and in time it was reverse engineered to be used in their own radio technology: because of this, both the Necros Cyborg control units and the Machina frame CPU's used similar coding. It was because of this fact that, during the Necros War, use of the Matrix sparked the Machina Civil War, as the Matrix had the ability to override all Machina radiowave-commands and unite them with the Necros Armed Forces. The Lexicons are starmap units that contain massive amounts of charts and maps displaying the locations all Precursor worlds and facilities as well as every other known object in the universe. Hooked up to the massive sensor arrays of both the Crucibles and the Facility Network, it is constantly updated and can effectively monitor every single thing that happens in the universe. In addition to this, the Lexicons use the most powerful communication network in the galaxy, allowing for instant conversation with anyone in the galaxy that is able to pick up an audio-video message signal. Locations Planets and Systems Being an interstellar empire of significant sophistication, the Precursors once inhabited almost every region of the Milky Way galaxy before their devastating war against the Hydra, and subsequent exodus. As such, the majority of planets are too minor to be worth note - others, such as Zeban and Athna, were extremely important areas. *Zeban was the Precursor homeworld, and as such the capital of the entire Sovereign Dominion. *Athna was the Precursor's main military bastion, and served to direct all military engagements throughout their multiple interstellar wars. *Ignito Prime was a planet used to train Precursors in slavery and labor during the Age of Suffering. Post-God Wars it became a symbolization of the Precursor's freedom. *Laicifitra System was a highly unique system, in that it was created artificially by the Precursors using Primal technology. The Facility Network The Facility Network was a large network of space station- to planet-sized Precursor installations with various purposes, ranging from military training to robotics factories to intelligence posts. It was comprised of 14 facilities scattered across the galaxy, and the vast power of each station was not exceeded by anything until the creation of the Crucibles. *Facility-00 "The Conduit" *Facility-01 "The Sanctum" *Facility-02 "The Parthenon" *Facility-03 "The Beacon" *Facility-04 "The Tyosnic" *Facility-05 "The Bunker" *Facility-06 "The Mirror" *Facility-07 "The Place" *Facility-08 "The Coliseum" *Facility-09 "The Catalog" *Facility-10 "The Hideout" *Facility-11 "The Garden" *Facility-12 "The Industry" *Facility-13 "The Factory" The Crucibles While there are few remainders of the era of Precursor dominance - most either being repurposed by later species or lost in stellar collisions, stars, black holes and so on - a small number of facilities and artifacts remain, a legacy to their time as an empire. The Facility Network itself has been the source of enlightenment and confrontation countless times - both for the ancient Forerunners and the fledgling Alliance of United Races alike - the knowledge and technology held by the Facilities being lusted after by all manner of creatures. However, the Crucibles are enigmatic, even by Precursor standards, and little was known about their design, purpose, location, and so on until the Necros War itself. First mentioned by the Precursor records found within the broken remains of 072 Ensnared Cadaver, the Forerunner Monitor of the Beacon Facility, where it was only described momentarily in fragmented phrases, destroyed by millenia upon millenia of data corruption. Exactly what the Crucibles were remained unknown, and even the former Precursor Nogard had no knowledge of them, seeking blindly for them shortly before his demise at the Battle of Ignito Prime. It was only after the Necros War had dragged on for some years that the true nature of these stations were discovered.... Giant world-stations, the Crucibles were created as the Precursor-Forerunner War ended: intended to be able to create massive organic armies from the races that the Precursors had seeded on nearby planets, the Crucibles were such enormous and well-equipped world-stations that even the Forerunner's Installation 00 paled in comparison. The Labyrinth Array The Labyrinth Array was of similiar use as the Halo Array, in both purpose and designation. The Labyrinth Array was designed to target and eliminate any type of life, whether it was sentient or not, on a changable radius. However, the maximum radius was not limited, alike the Halo Array, which it's radius could only clear a galaxy. The Labyrinth Array had a total of 77 installations, all scattered throughout the Universe. If the Primals were to return, it would activate, targeting all Primal cells and destroying them. This Array was later hidden in slipspace to stop the Forerunners from capturing it. In effect, the Forerunners could only mimic and recreate the array, but could not copy the technological radius and destruction it could cause. Names Precursor names followed a simple pattern, as all ended in the suffix "el", usually preceded by either a'', ''i, or u''. In addition, all names were followed with a prefix that denoted the rank of the individual, most commonly applied to those in the military, but also applied in a few cases to those in politics (i.e. Ekard for bombardier, Nrevyw for CQC specialist, Arihpas for the Siegnor, etc), which was coupled with a number to tell the degree of such a rank. A list of all the suffixes used for Precursor follows: ''Government Prefixes *Arihpas or "Siegnior" is the official title for the leader of the Precursor Sovereign Dominion. The only known Precursor to hold this rank is the Timeless One. *Guams or "Mogul" are the leaders of the Dynasties within the Precursor Synod. In every political event, they come in to represent their dynasty and are the "carriers" of a Cotorie's opinion. *Nroht. The Ajudicators. Military Prefixes *Arijog or "Overlord" is the Grand Commander of all Military operations, armies, fleets and conflicts. He is effectively the de facto leader. The only known Precursor to hold this rank is The Warrior. *Ihcoro: Commander of either the Army, Navy, Air Force or Strikers. First First is for the Army, Second is for the Navy, third for the Air Force and the fourth for the Strikers. *Nogard: Special Rank. Only one member of said rank, a super soldier created to fight the Primals. *Gnol: Regular Infantry. *Uyr: Airman. *Harodihg: Striker. *Igoomi: Navy. *Adnam: Sniper. *Nrevyw: Close-quarters Specialist (Melee,shotguns etc.) *Ekard: Heavy Weapons Specialist. *Ardyh: Information Warfare. *Mryw: Special Anti-Primal Warfare. *Ggohdin: Medic. *Gnurualg: Special Forces Trooper. *Nakiurhs: Exclusive to Elders. Notable Precursors *The Timeless One *The Warrior *The Knowledgeable One *The Oberon *The Goliath Other Major Factions - United Nations - North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Koslovic - Frieden - Neo-Frieden - Colonial Military Administration - The United Galactic Alliance - The First Human Intergalactic Empire - The Second Human Intergalactic Empire - The Covenant Empire - The Covenant Loyalists - The Covenant Separatists - The Holy Federation of Sangheilos - The Covenant Remnants - The Precursor Sovereign Dominion - The Forerunner Ecumene - The Primal Universal Imperium - Unified Earth Government - Machina Federation - Yanme'e Hives-Jiralhanae Alliance -Kig-Yar Union - The Guardians - United Rebel Front - United Rebel Alliances - Union of Socialist Rebellion - Sangheili Separatist Confederacy - Sangheili Loyalist Alliance - Sangheili Separatist Union-Sangheili Imperialist Enforcers - Machina Resistance - Union of Supreme Nations - The Reformers - The Stoics-United Nations Space Command - Unified Unggoy Republic - Anti-Kig-Yar Freedom Movement - The First Grand and Holy Sangheili Empire - Young Seraphs - Category:Major Races